Reading and using hotel data isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. With the right approach, it is quite simple to evaluate and then use the data to the hotel’s advantage.
The biggest hurdle we see many times is that hotels feel since there is so much data to evaluate, they don’t even know how to go about it. You have data with regard to yield management, hotel occupancy, footfall on the websites and on the social media pages, distribution data, data with the F&B outlets and other POS and so on.
How should hotels use Hotel Data?
Getting the data is the first step. If a hotel has a PMS like Hotelogix, they can easily get reports from topics such as night audit, occupancy, financial forecasts, guest lists, POS sales etc.
Once the reports have been collected, an effective way to use and understand the data is to compare different types of data rather than using only on type. The comparison shall help uncover new perspectives about the functioning of the hotel, the business it generates, and the type of guests it attracts.
Important Data to evaluate:
Profile of guests: Hotel should evaluate their guests keeping the whole picture in mind. A retired holiday traveler may be a big spender at the hotel, but he may be doing this only once in his lifetime versus a business traveler who may be cautious with his expenses but would be a recurring guest. Understand the types of guests frequenting your hotel and see what methods can be used to enhance guest loyalty so that you become the hotel of their choice on consecutive visits.
External Factors contributing to the Occupancy of the hotel: There are specific reasons why hotels may see a rise and fall in occupancy with respect to the external factors. A leisure hotel shall attract more guests during the holidays whereas business hotels shall have more visitors during the working days. Hotels should use this data to see how they can prosper during the slump areas. Business hotels can offer special all inclusive packages during the weekends with a late check out to attract local customers.
Social Media and Reviews:
Technically a hotel should see a rise in positive reviews when their number of social media shares (positive ones) increase. If that is not the case, hoteliers can look at this an opportunity to interact with their guests and encourage them to leave a review in different sites.
Pricing and Performance:
The pricing of the hotels rooms and their occupancy give a clear rank of where the hotel stands in that particular location. A significantly higher ADR as compared to what the rest of the city is offering can adversely affect the occupancy of the hotel. Hotels should study how their ADR versus the market, impacts their occupancy and whether a correction is required.
Marketing expenses and performances:
Hotels should review the impact of their marketing campaigns. Analyse the data to check if specific campaigns are driving bookings? Is the investment in the campaign generating a lucrative ROI? This shall enable them to plan their future marketing initiatives.
In the hospitality industry, there is infinite data that can be collected and analysed. A potential customer starts the Data ‘paper trail’ from the moment they visit the hotels website as a casual glance. Hotels can start by focusing on the above mentioned data, and then via the ripple effect they shall be able to pinpoint the information that is specific and pertinent to their property.
